Grenada CBI head denies corruption allegations

The chairman of the citizenship by investment programme in Grenada has been forced to defend herself after an American blogger alleged a series of professional wrongdoings.

Kaisha Ince released a statement in which she described the claims as “an outright lie” and that it runs “unsubstantiated issues being put out as facts”.

The blog in question is run by Florida-based Kenneth Rijock, a convicted money launderer who now labels himself a financial crime consultant. He said the response was “shoot the messenger” tactic.

The blogger claimed to have evidence of text messages that implicate Prime Minister Keith Mitchell and Ince.

He followed that with a another post on discussing a personal relationship he believes he has uncovered between the prime minister and Ince – again apparently backed up by text messages.

Responding to his controversial accusations, Ince said: "In his latest blog post, Mr Kenneth Rijock – convicted criminal and self-styled financial analyst – continues on his paid campaign to try to discredit a number of successful CBI programmes in the region, including our own.

“As chairman of the board of the Citizenship By Investment Programme and as one of the persons referred to in Rijock’s fabricated text message exchanges, I roundly reject the latest blog post, which has unsubstantiated issues being put out as facts.

Rijock’s latest blog, like several of the previous, is bogus and an outright lie, intended to mislead and deceive people, and to disrupt Grenada’s CBI Programme.”

She warned that if the blog continues along this path then whoever is responsible will be prosecuted “to the full force of law”.

In a blog post on Saturday, Rijock did not retract his allegations.

He wrote: “We do not make statements without a factual basis; this blog has screenshots showing all the statements quoted in the last article, and we will make that information available to any US law enforcement agency investigating corruption in the CBI and diplomatic passport programmes.”